n3wjack's spurts of the mind and other geeky ramblings

why an open sourced .NET framework is huge

I was already excited about the recent ASP.NET vNext developments. Things like the fact that you can get the ASP.NET source code on Github, that it’s completely FOSS and that it’s disconnected from the rest of the .NET stack are just plain awesome.

A huge step for ASP.NET vNext is that you don’t need Visual Studio to write software with it. You can use your favourite text editor like Vim, Sublime, Emacs or whatever you like, together with a number of open source command line tools.

A second huge thing is that ASP.NET 5 can now run cross-platform using Mono on Linux and Mac. Not only can you use your development tools of choice to write and build your C# code, you can also do it on the OS of your choice. .NET everywhere. Think about it. *mind blown*

Yesterday however, things got even sweeter as Microsoft is now releasing more of the v5 .NET Framework as open source. This means more and easier cross-platform development and Mono compatibility (as the source can be easily integrated in Mono) for .NET code.

On top of that there is now a new Visual Studio Community edition of Visual Studio available for free. This is equal to the Pro version, so you can ditch those crippled free “Express” versions and write code in the tools you’re used to professionally. I love this one. I’ve messed around with SharpDevelop and the Express version, but if you’re used to the “real thing” it feels like having to work with your hands tied behind your back.

As if this wasn’t enough there’s a bunch of other cool improvements too, like getting only the .NET framework components you need for your project and pull them in using NuGet. Scott Hanselman sums them up nicely.

So if you’ve always wanted to check out .NET or C# but didn’t want to because you had to run it on Windows and in Visual Studio, there’s nothing holding you back any more. For .NET developers this is great. It gives us more freedom than ever without having to learn a new language and framework. For people hacking away on OS X and Ubuntu with Ruby, Python etc. because they want to use FOSS, this is an opportunity to dip into the wealth of .NET resources out there and try something new.

The strategy is clear. They want everyone to use the .NET framework, they want everybody to run that code on Azure (even if you’re not using .NET) and they see that making it open is the only way to get there. Great times are ahead.